by Charlotte Brodie, of University of Vermont
On the morning of March 27th, we packed up camp around 7am and headed off to the Central Kalahari National Park! The drive was roughly 3-hours, and looking out the window I could clearly see a shift in vegetation as it transitioned from an area with many species at various heights to an area dominated with short grasses with some tall trees and short shrubs. When we arrived at the National Park, I noticed that the vegetation was so sparse that you could see clearly for so many kilometers.
The Central Kalahari National Park Entrance.
This photo depicts the vegetation present in the Central Kalahari National Park.
The next day, after setting in, we headed on our first game drive around 6am. The early morning is the best time to observe wildlife because of the cool temperature, so we tend to start all of our game drives around this time. Right as we started driving, we began to see many oryx and springbok grazing. This was everyone’s first time seeing oryx so we were all really excited! Since the sun wasn’t out yet, we could find them all over the park, but as we continued our drive and it got much hotter, I noticed that these animals moved under the shade of larger trees. Regardless of where they were, it was really easy to spot all of the wildlife because there wasn’t a lot of vegetation.
Oryx grazing.
Springbok gathered in the shade of a large camel thorn acacia tree.
As we kept driving, we saw two honey badgers running through the grass. Alongside the honey badgers there was a pale chanting goshawk and two bat-eared foxes. We saw honey badgers another time shortly after, and when we looked through our binoculars we could see a bunch of dirt being thrown up from them digging burrows.
In addition, throughout this game drive we saw many black-backed jackals. We usually spotted them in pairs running through the grass, but once we saw one lying under the shade of a small shrub. We also stopped at a borehole to see if any animals had come by to drink, and saw a black-backed jackal sitting down next to a car. It stayed there for a few minutes after we got there, and then walked closer to our car to give us a show.
Black-backed jackal.
Black-backed jackal sitting right next to our car.
As we were driving, we passed a safari car and Cosmos went out to ask if they had seen anything exciting. They told us that they had just seen a cheetah a couple of kilometers back, so we kept driving, very hopeful that we would see the cheetah. Sadly, we didn’t end up finding it; it must have run off before we got there. Dashing to the area where the cheetah was sighted was so thrilling, and even though we didn’t get to see it the drive was really exciting. I’m looking forward to the chance to possibly see one in Khwai!
The Pitse group enjoying the sunset.